AUTHORS: Tijn van Vugt and Elisabet Nadeu (IEEP)

Europe’s agricultural sector is facing unprecedented challenges, from global food crises to the pressure of transitioning towards a more sustainable and healthy food system. This report explores how European farmers, along with the wider food industry, scientists, and policymakers, can turn these challenges into new opportunities by diversifying protein sources within the European food system.

Protein diversification – defined as rebalancing the shares of animal-sourced, plant-based and novel proteins within the food system, holds significant promise to address key EU priorities, such as for climate targets, environmental, planetary resources, health, and animal welfare. However, the socio-economic impacts from European protein diversification on farmers remain largely under-investigated.

This research explores scenarios simulating a diversification to more sustainable and healthier European diets, with a higher share of plant-based proteins, showing implications for agricultural production, producer prices, trade and farmers’ incomes. The report indicates that the economic impact on EU farmers’ income depends on the ability of farmers to diversify their production in line with demand changes.

A successful diversification to plant-based production could offset losses in animal-based products and could give farmers a perspective on new profitable plant-based business models. However, the report outlines current structural barriers for farmers to diversify their production, for example towards cultivation of legumes, such as revenue barriers (volatile and low yields) and cost (high switching costs, opportunity costs).

This report highlights the need for robust policy support and collaboration within the agriculture and food sector  to overcome structural barriers for farmers to diversify towards new plant-based opportunities, including:

1. Develop an EU protein diversification strategy, including food and feed, with clearly articulated impact targets, including economic benefits for farmers, aligned with adjacent policy areas (e.g., bioeconomy).
2. De-risk farmers’ efforts to diversify into plant-based opportunities, while recognizing and rewarding ecosystem benefits generated by these initiatives.
3. Support diversified value chains through public procurement and enhanced collaboration across the chain, with suitable contractual arrangements and fair pricing for farmers.
4. Create an EU plant-based innovation cluster that effectively unites public, industry, research, and civil society stakeholders to accelerate plant-based food innovation.
5. Make sustainable and healthy foods the easy option for European consumers by creating a more equitable level playing field between plant-based and animal-sourced foods.

In its recently published Vision for Agriculture and Food, the European Commission mentions its willingness to produce a comprehensive plan to address the challenges arising from the way that protein is “produced and consumed” in the EU to “create a more self-sufficient and sustainable EU protein system, while at the same time diversifying imports”  (COM(2025) 75 final). This report shows a way forward by providing strategic insights into how farmers can overcome structural barriers to profitable diversification, illustrated by the example of legume crops.

Report cover page image by Meredith Petrick from Unsplash